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Clear Sky’s Sweet 16th Anniversary with Tantric Empowerments
August 13, 2021 - August 15, 2021
Clear Sky's Sweet 16 & Tantric Empowerments
Weekend Celebration | August 13-15In Vajrayana Buddhism, initiations, empowerments or wongkur (Tib. དབང་, wang) are considered the spring from which all blessings flow. Join us for three empowerments, during a weekend of joy to celebrate our retreat centre’s 16th anniversary.
Important Note:
Online registrations close by August 10th
In person registrations close by August 3rd
Celebration & Tantric Empowerments
Celebration time! Covid-19 travel restrictions threw a wrench in our plans for Clear Sky’s 15th Anniversary and ten day Tantric Deep Dive in 2020, as well as in 2021. We’ve adjusted the programming so that community can come together from anywhere in the world for a three day celebration instead. It will be online, *and if health restrictions ease, possibly in person as well.
To fete Doug Sensei’s 72nd year, together with 16 remarkable years at Clear Sky we invite you to join us for three empowerments.
These empowerments give you an energetic blessing, and access to practice mantra and visualisation of different transcendental archetypes from the Himalayan schools of Buddhism.
Over the weekend, we will celebrate Clear Sky’s 16th anniversary – sharing our community’s stories from past and present as well as future visions.. The three wongkur empowerments will be interspersed throughout the weekend.
Held at Clear Sky, a 21st-century model for innovative awakening, situated in the beautiful B.C. Rocky Mountains.
The Empowerments Offered
- Green Tara
- Amitayus
- Vajrapani Hayagriva Garuda
These empowerments are open to the general public (live attendance). They are special ceremonies that are best experienced in person. However, if you cannot come live, we ask that you have attended events with us in the past, or have some experience with vajrayana deity practice.
16th Anniversary and Tantric Empowerments Weekend Schedule*
*exact times being confirmed.
Friday Schedule – August 13th
- Arrival time: 11am Friday August 13th (onsite participants)
- 4pm Green Tara Empowerment [available online]
- 7:30pm Anniversary Opening and Japanese Cocktail Party with the Teachers. [available online]
Saturday Schedule – August 14th
- 9:30am-11:30am MST: Catherine Sensei presenting on the History of Clear Sky [available online]
- 4pm Amitayus Empowerment [available online]
- 7:30pm: Community Sharing Open Mic [available online]
- 8:30pm: Dancing [available online]
Sunday Schedule – August 15th
- 9:30-11:00am: Looking to the Future – Community visioning and temple update [available online].
- 4pm Vajrapani Hayagriva Garuda Empowerment [available online]
- Celebrations officially end with the wongkur on Sunday afternoon. There is also the option to stay for dinner.
Online Participants Wongkur Orientation
- 2pm MST (Tentative. Time to be confirmed) before each wongkur on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
- 24 hour online practice rooms will be available.
Participants coming onsite for empowerments only
- Please register online and arrive by 3pm MST before each empowerment. Please also call 250-429-3929 to confirm we have received your registration.
Participants coming onsite for empowerments only
- If you would like to come to the empowerments only, but not the anniversary weekend, please register online and arrive by 3pm MST before each empowerment. Please also call 250-429-3929 to confirm we have received your registration and details.
What are Vajrayana Empowerments (aka Wongkur)?
Namgyal Rinpoche, our lineage root guru, put it best:
In the depth of the psyche lie all possibilities in a state of unrealized potential. In every being there exists the possibility of experiencing transcendental consciousness, which when the student is ready, the Teacher(s) can make accessible to him or her via empowerment, initiation, or wongkur.
One should regard Wongkur as an event in which the Lama sows the seed of transcendental consciousness in the depth of the student. The seed will lie in the unconscious until the student brings it to realization in the practice of meditation.
The Empowerments Offered
- Green Tara
- Amitayus
- Vajrapani Hayagriva Garuda
Suggested Reading
We highly recommend you read What is Wong Kur – Explanations by Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche and H.H. Sakya Trizin” compiled by Wesley Knapp, prior to registering for this retreat.
Clear Sky’s 16th Anniversary
A Weekend Celebration
August 13-15, 2021
Join us in-person for the weekend, or if you can’t make it live, for the online celebration.
Countless hands have contributed to building our incredible center, Clear Sky. It is with deep gratitude that we excitedly share this opportunity to join in celebration, connection and growth.
The Location: Clear Sky Center
- Located in the BC rocky mountains, Clear Sky offers over 300-acres to deepen your practice and reconnect with nature. Founded by Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat, the centre is home to students from around the globe who are dedicated to co-creating a supportive and innovative space for awakening in our modern world.
- How to get there, what to bring and other FAQ about Clear Sky
- Booking a flight? Airport pickups can be booked when you register for the retreat. In the event that this retreat is cancelled, we highly recommend purchasing travel insurance.
Friday Schedule
- Arrival time: 11am
- Orientation & Welcome: 11:30am
- 12:20pm: Lunch
- 4pm: Green Tara Empowerment
Online Participants Wongkur Orientation
- 2pm MST (Tentative. Time to be confirmed) before each wongkur on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Meet the Teachers
Catherine Pawasarat
Doug Duncan
Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat are Dharma and meditation teachers who founded Clear Sky Meditation Centre, BC, Canada. Achariya Doug Duncan received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 1978, and is a lineage holder in that teaching. Known for his direct, humourous and compassionate engagement with students, Doug embraces various traditions, contemporary psychology, and science, to mentor all beings to a more awakened state. Catherine Pawasarat has trained daily with Acariya Doug Duncan since 1998 in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that is rare in the modern West. She received lay ordination from Namgyal Rinpoche in 2003. In addition to Buddhist philosophy and its applications to daily life, Catherine also draws on generative living and the arts. With Doug she is co-founder of Clear Sky Retreat Center in the BC Rockies.
What Do Previous Retreatants Say?
Through the power of long dedication, deep meditation, and wise guidance, life can definitely be transformed. If you get a chance to study with Doug-sensei and Catherine, don’t miss it. This kind of spiritual guidance and down to earth work have deeply shifted many people’s lives and led to deep awakenings.
Doug and Catherine Sensei are living examples of the dharma teachings. In their presence, they have the ability to put me at ease and their teachings (somewhat mysteriously) become alive and intimate. I trust in their one-pointed focus on whatever it takes to speed their students unrealized potential.
It is one thing to hear or read the Dharma and understand it intellectually. This retreat went so much further than that, as I found myself receiving realizations of the teachings on a visceral basis, going far beyond simply understanding.
Event Details
Fees and Dāna
This two night, three day celebration package at Clear Sky retreat center includes accommodation and all meals. There are cabin, shared and tenting accommodation options available. Click on the registration link for details and pricing.
For online participants, there is a $75 administration fee to cover administrative and other costs of hosting the online empowerments and anniversary.
Register Here for the Weekend:
Empowerments Registration
After registering for the 16th anniversary weekend, please register for each empowerment individually via the buttons below. If you cannot attend the whole weekend it is also possible to attend individual empowerments.
We highly recommend that you attend these empowerments in person. They are very special events and transmissions where live attendance gives you the full experience. If you cannot attend in person, but have attended events with us in the past, or have done vajrayana deity practice in the past, it is possible to attend online.
These empowerments are offered by Doug and Catherine Sensei through the ancient principle of generosity, or Dāna.
Empowerments Schedule
- Green Tara: 4:00pm MST Friday August 13th
- Amitayus: 4:00pm MST Saturday August 14th
- Vajrapani Hayagriva Garuda: 4:00pm MST Sunday August 15th
